Traditional Whale Hunters
The Indonesian whale hunter village, Lamalera Rain mostly exists in the prayers
of Christian people of Lamalera. The rocky mountains surrounding the village of
a thousand people is not suitable for breeding animals or growing vegetables
and fruits. Nothing planted can survive in the bare, burnt-out ground.
Lamalera's people have survived for hundreds years only by the sea, and its
fruits: little fish, manta, bottlenose dolphin and the fervently hoped whale. It is a
common scene for this place: a man, with a long wangee cane in his hand, inside
a whale-boat made of wood, and no metal, at all. Sometimes, the 10-15 meters
long mammal wins, the crew dies, and the little boat is sunk. But hunting is a
need for survival. Every day the sun rises and sets according to the same
schedule. After the early Morning Prayer, men launch cockleshells, jumping in,
straining every nerve, and sailing to the open-sea, all day long, in quest of their
food. © GYULA SOPRONYI